HURFOM: Seasonal festivals, calls for donations, wedding ceremonies and initiations of novices to the monastery are all celebrated loudly throughout Mon State. The use of mobile loudspeakers and sound systems operating at maximum levels can be found at all of these events.

HURFOM: 49 questions were to be raised during the 14th regular meeting of the second-term of the Mon State Parliament, but the Mon State government replied on September 17 that they could answer only 25 questions.

HURFOM: According to a 2017 report by the Mon Youth Progressive Organization (MYPO), drug use in some ethnic areas, throughout Burma is on the rise. MYPO interviewed 500 people from 10 townships in Mon State. Those interviewed were between 12 to 60 years of age, and had experience with drug use.

Burma is a patriarchal society where, despite Aung San Suu Kyi’s high profile, gender inequality still exists. Women are still denied equal rights and continue to face discrimination. Politics is one key realm where Burma’s ongoing gender inequality comes into focus. Read more

Civilian land confiscated by the military and government departments for State projects and private companies has reached 2 million acres. The majority of confiscated lands are owned by small-holder farmers, with 90% of the victims dependent solely on their lands for their livelihoods. With such devastating effects on rural livelihoods, land conflict is the most pressing issue facing Burma today, second only to armed conflict. Read more

In Burma’s 2010 general election, the country’s first election in twenty years, former military commander U Thein Sein won a majority vote to become the president of Burma. For five years now, since that election, Burma has been transitioning towards democracy. In the upcoming 2015 presidential elections, the election commission has committed, to both the people of Burma and world leaders, to hold free and fair elections. Read more

Sexual violence and abuse committed by the Burmese military against ethnic women is a constant and ongoing danger for the women of Burma. On January 27, 2014, a soldier from Artillery Battalion No 315, based in Wae Ka Lee, assaulted and beat a local woman. According to a local source, the victim was brought to Rangoon hospital on February 4 to further treat a serious head injury bore during the attack. Although the Burmese government has signed United Nations Conventions to ensure the protection of women and children, the government is failing provide, and in many cases obstructing, such protection. Read more

WCRP: Ma Eli Htwe , 20 year-old, is from YaeLalKout Tan, in Rangon. She is working in a massage bar in Own Pinn village, which lies along a gas pipeline that is longer, but less well-known, than the controversial Yadana pipeline that it connects to. Today, Ohn Pin Kwin is predominantly home to ethnic Tavoy people, with a small Mon population. Read more

HURFOM: It’s 5:00am, and the early morning fog makes the sky look very dark; a limousine from Ta La Mon arrives at the bus station in Myay Nee Gon, Moulmein, Mon State. It’s time for the local children to start their daily search for plastic, which they redeem to buy food for themselves and their families. Read more

WCRP: On June 26, Burma’s anti-narcotics task force marked the International Day Against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking by destroying over 4.4 billion kyat worth of illegal drugs. This move, along with others aimed at rehabilitating drug users and developing alternative crops for poppy farmers, seems fitting in light of recent international recognition of the country’s drug problems. In the past year Burma has been named by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) as the world’s second largest producer of opium and the “top source of illicit methamphetamine pills in East and Southeast Asia.” Read more